Info about the G-engine:

Hey, all. How's it hangin'? Thanks for all the feedback on the new GK3 pages.

I've seen it mentioned a few times that if you want to know what GK3 looks like play Shivers II. I wanted to point out that the GK3 engine (G-engine) is NOT the Shivers II engine. First, Shivers II was not real time but pre-rendered, and you could only 'move' the camera (I believe haven't played it) minimally. In contrast, everything in GK3, backgrounds, characters, etc. will be REAL TIME, meaning generated on the fly so that you can move the camera 100%. The AVI fly through at the train station, for example, was not a pre-rendered movie, but an example of how you'll actually be able to move the camera in the game under your own control of course and wherever you wish. This means that during dialogue between two characters (for instance) you can zoom up to one to look in the eyes or look behind their back to see if their fingers are crossed or peek in their pocket or whatever. Shivers II is actually nothing at all like GK3 neither in engine, story, art, setting, puzzles, etc.

Just wanted to clarify before I start seeing people post Shivers II shots as 'what GK3 will be like' images!

Jane 8-16-97

RE: default camera angles:

Yes! This is one of the fun things we're working out. In each 'room' there'll be 3-5 default camera angles which you can get by clicking on 'camera 1-5' on the interface. These will 'show' you the whole room so that if you get your camera in a tough spot or just have a slow machine you can zip around quickly. Then, for 'scenes' such as talking to the desk clerk, another 3-4 camera buttons will appear that have shots JUST FOR THAT SCENE, like an over the shoulder of the clerk on Gabe, etc. so that you can get these nice angles during the dialogue (or go out to room views with the other buttons for that 'Hitchcock effect'. You'll be able to jump to any of the default camera positions at will or move the camera with the keypad or mouse any time.

Very exciting for someone who's always worked with a static or forced camera before (i.e. me).

Jane 8-17-97

About the icons:

Don't want to say too much about this yet but, yes, there'll be icons i.e. more than one. In fact, there'll be more than GK1 overall.

In general, I think GK3 is more of a return to GK1, at least in turns of interactivity level and puzzles.

Jane 8-17-97

About video and chapter movies:

There will be no video in GK3, but there will be more 'scenes' around time changes.

As for the GK2 ending, to me the 'ending' of GK2 was the opera scene. This was a 10 minutes scene and very diffcult to produce and wove everything together. The rest of it was more 'epilogue' to wrap things up, particularly the bridge scene. The 'opera' is probably one of the most elaborate endings ever done for a computer game. Not sure why people feel 'disappointed' with the bridge scene when it followed so quickly on the opera which was clearly the 'dramatic high point' of the story in so many ways.

Jane 8-17-97

More about the cameras:

All:

If you wish to simply watch the scenes, that's certainly an option. You will not miss anything crucial by not moving the camera. Also, during the 'big' story scenes such as the chapter opening/closing movies in GK2, the camera will be controlled for you in a dramatic fashion. But most of the gameplay happens in the 'regular' environment in which you can either just watch the scene, mess with the default camera angles for that scene to 'direct', or fly the camera depending on how interactive you want to be.

Jane 8-19-97

Hi-

Because of the heading placed with my team bio there seems to be a bit of confusion about my role on the GK3 team, so I wanted to take a moment to clarify. I'm the lead sound designer on the team, and am working with Robert Holmes on the music. He writes the music, I adapt it into the context of the game. Robert has done so much in the past to define the sound of Gabriel Knight games that we felt it was necessary to have him aboard once again. So, Robert is going to be very much involved with the music on this game as well.

DH 10-31-97

In response to queries about a text option in GK3:

I think that there is already a feature like this in the game. As you play,the text appears at the bottom of the screen.

Adam 1-5-98

About static vs. animated sky:

You should see the sky in this game! It is not static, don't worry, and it's beautiful!

Adam 1-6-98

And before anyone starts worrying about how slow the game will move with an animated sky:

let me reword that. It's not animated, because that would be so slow you wouldn't be able to take it. But it's not like the skies you usually see in 3D games.

Adam 1-6-98